Samsung Expands Early-Stage Tech Funds to 'Leapfrog' Rivals

Samsung Electronics Co. opened a branch of its early-stage technology investment program in Tel Aviv to better tap into the innovative engineering for which Israel is known. Investment in individual companies will typically be about $1 million with no limit on the number of beneficiaries or the funding amount, Eyal Miller, Samsung Next Tel Aviv’s general manager and chief executive officer, said at a news conference. “Everyone is trying to leapfrog the competition,” Kai Bond, general manager and CEO of Samsung Global Innovation Center in New York, said in an interview. “But for us to continue to innovate three, five, seven years out, we want to play with individuals who are very, very early on, at a concept phase with a vision, as opposed to something that is fully established.”…